Who really said it

any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee

Q: Did John Donne say "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee"?

Yes. This is genuine Donne, from Meditation XVII of his prose work Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624). The familiar wording only modernises Donne's 17th-century spelling — the words themselves are his.

Written by John Donne 1572 – 1631 · English poet, cleric & Dean of St Paul’s

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This is genuine Donne, from Meditation XVII of his prose work Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624). The familiar wording only modernises Donne’s 17th-century spelling — the words themselves are his.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee” John Donne, Meditation XVII, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624)

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Provenance

The source

Work: Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII
Author: John Donne (1572–1631)
First published: 1624 (written December 1623)
Form: Prose meditation — not a poem

No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine… any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

Donne’s original 1624 spelling. Modern editions regularise it to “No man is an island… any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

John Donne, Meditation XVII (full text)

How we traced it

The exact wording sits in Meditation XVII, which closes with “any man’s death diminishes me… it tolls for thee.”
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions was written in December 1623 during Donne’s recovery from illness and first published in 1624.
The 1624 original reads “No man is an Iland… I am involved in Mankinde” — the popular quote just modernises the spelling.

Public domain

First published in 1624, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions is long in the public domain worldwide. The modern-spelling wording adds no new copyrightable authorship — it merely regularises Donne’s own 17th-century text.

Fact-check

What people get wrong

The attribution to Donne is correct — but the form is routinely misremembered.

Circulated as a Donne “poem” form

The lines are prose from Meditation XVII, a devotional essay. The familiar line-broken “No Man Is an Island” poem is a modern rearrangement of Donne’s continuous prose.

Ernest Hemingway borrowed the phrase

Hemingway’s 1940 novel took its title and epigraph from this passage; the words are Donne’s, written more than three centuries earlier.

Genuine John Donne — prose from Meditation XVII of the Devotions (1624), only modernised in spelling.

Context

Why it mattered

Donne wrote the Devotions in December 1623 as he lay gravely ill, listening to the church bells that tolled for the dying and dead of his parish. Meditation XVII turns that sound into an argument about human solidarity: because every person is “a part of the main,” another’s death is a loss to oneself.

The passage gave English two of its most enduring phrases — “no man is an island” and “for whom the bell tolls” — the latter immortalised again by Ernest Hemingway’s 1940 novel.

Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Mortality Friendship

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Meditation XVII, full textluminarium.org

The complete meditation containing the line, with Donne’s Latin epigraph.

Devotions upon Emergent Occasionsen.wikipedia.org

Background on the 1624 work and its most-quoted meditation.

No man is an island (Meditation XVII)brinkerhoffpoetry.org

The passage presented and read aloud, noting its prose origin.

John Donneen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the poet and Dean of St Paul’s (1572–1631).

For Whom the Bell Tolls (novel)en.wikipedia.org

Hemingway’s 1940 novel that took its title and epigraph from this passage.

The true author

About John Donne

John Donne

1572–1631 · English poet, cleric & Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral

John Donne (1572–1631) was the leading English metaphysical poet and, from 1621, Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. He wrote his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions in December 1623 while recovering from a life-threatening fever, meditating on mortality and human interconnection. Meditation XVII — source of both “no man is an island” and “for whom the bell tolls” — is his most quoted prose.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

John Donne, “Meditation XVII,” in Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (London, 1624).

MLA (9th ed.)

Donne, John. “Meditation XVII.” Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, 1624.

APA (7th ed.)

Donne, J. (1624). Meditation XVII. In Devotions upon emergent occasions.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/any-mans-death-diminishes-me-because-i-am-involved-in